The Legend of King Arthur gets a modern remake as the latest turn of the round table hits the big screen.
Nickelodeon’s The Kid Who Would Be King, stars Louis Ashbourne Serkis as Alex, a young boy with a pure heart for helping his friend, Bedders (Dean Chaumoo) when the bullies at his school decide to pick on him. But when the bullies turn to pick on Alex, he seeks refuge in an abandoned construction site where he discovers a mysterious sword in the stone.
Now it is up to Alex to form a team of knights, composed of his most feared enemies, and figure out just how to save the world and their hometown of London from the treaches of the evil Morgana.
At 2 hour run time, the film is packed with action and adventure with a hint of humor for the modern time. The screenwriter/director took special care to ensure that the story would appeal to that of a younger, tech savvy audience. With references including, “mario kart” and “google translate” one could definitely relate to how a kid in this time might react if he suddenly found himself as king.
In addition, there are two well known actors which made the film that much more enticing for an older audience. Both Rebecca Fergusen who played Morgana as well as Patrick Stewart as the older Merlin, added to the film in such a way that it enhanced the dialogue with their maturity.
And the actor playing young Merlin, Angus Imrie, should be praised for his acting skills as he cleverly displayed great acting skills for portraying a most extinguished character as the mysterious wizard of the legend. Additionally he also was able to match the same style as his older counterpart so that as the character of Merlin morphed from older to younger and back again, the audience had no doubts that the two actors were meant to be the same person.
Finally, as the legend of King Arthur has been done countless times, the one thing that made this movie different is the fact that the director decided not to just have the kid drop into the old story. Rather instead, the film takes a new twist on the fact that Alex could in fact be a descendant of Arthur. However, the film also seeks to encourage kids in yet another way as it highlights the problems with schools being the root for kids being bullied and society being divided.
Through the film, one could also take away the idea that while Alex might be related, it could be that if one is good and pure, excalibur could be at anyone’s grip.
Even so, the film came out in theaters January 25, 2019 and is highly encouraged to see in a theater near you.